Travels between the First and Third Dimensions at Western Exhibitions is JOHN NEFF'S first Chicago solo show since relocating to the Bay Area in 2003, and his first solo show with Western Exhibitions.

Neff will be showing reliefs, flat panels on the horizontal or the vertical axis that twist into three- dimensions. The panels are ceramic tile mosaics and/or metalworks in brass, lead, and steel. Most incorporate pre-made decorative objects like tiles, vases, and small representational sculptures. Many of the panels have a nominal function: table, fan, heater, doorbell, ashtray...decoration. These panels reflect a subtle shift from the concerns of the works on paper presented in Neff's last solo show at Chicago's Suitable Gallery in 2002. Those pieces, small-scale paper collages, dealt with private, cloistered worlds. The relief panels are more outward-looking, and refer, sometimes blatantly and sometimes obliquely, to current events and to Neff's day-to-day life, particularly his interactions with his sister, a mosaicist.